Mustang To Compete in Nationwide Series Next Season

Ford Racing announced Tuesday that it will race the Mustang brand in the NASCAR Nationwide Series next season.

It will mark the first time that Mustangs have raced in NASCAR.

Brian Wolfe, director of Ford North America Motorsports, made the announcement that Mustang will debut as part of NASCAR’s “new car” limited rollout in the 2010 Nationwide Series.

“We’re excited about Mustang coming to NASCAR,” said Wolfe. “It’s the most successful product nameplate in racing history, and it seems only right that it should be coming to the most popular form of racing in North America.

“We had been talking with NASCAR for some time about Mustang as part of its vision for a ‘muscle car’ rollout for the Nationwide Series. We both saw it as a way of differentiating the series from Sprint Cup,” said Wolfe. “We loved the idea, so we jumped on the chance to extend Mustang’s racing legacy to a new series reaching a huge and loyal audience. Mustang has dominated other forms of racing, including NHRA drag racing, Grand-Am Cup road racing, and Formula D drifting, and now it’s coming to NASCAR Nationwide.

“I think race fans – and Mustang loyalists – will be very pleased when we publicly roll out the first car later this fall.”

Ford Racing has gone through the official NASCAR submission and approval process for the new car, and, once templates are finalized, production of Mustang parts will start so teams can build the first cars for testing later this fall.

“We’re excited about the new car in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, and particularly the new body styles such as the Ford Mustang,” said NASCAR President Mike Helton. “It’s going to be one good-looking race car.”

The 2010 Ford Mustang will join the 2010 Fusion (Sprint Cup) and the 2009 Ford F-Series (Camping World Truck Series) as Ford’s competitive entries in NASCAR’s three major professional series.

“We’re excited about being able to race Mustang in front of our loyal NASCAR fan base and know it’s going to win races and championships just like it has in every other series it has competed,” said Wolfe. “The Mustang created the pony car movement when it debuted in 1964. Now, the NASCAR Mustang has the opportunity to create a whole new look to stock car racing at its highest levels.”

2 Comments »

Hmmmm … It seems the PR department at Ford needs to do a bit of homework.
“It will mark the first time that Mustangs have raced in NASCAR.”
I assume that came from a press release from Ford.
In the early 1970s, NASCAR had a division called the Grand American Series that featured Ford Mustangs, Chevrolet Camaros, AMC Javelins, Mercury Cougars and Pontiac Trans Ams.
Oh, maybe they meant the top levels of NASCAR. Ehhhhh! Wrong again. In fact Bobby Allison drove a red No. 49 Coca-Cola-sponsored Ford Mustang to victory in a Grand National race (what is now the Sprint Cup Series).
Oh, but NASCAR reportedly doesn’t recognize that win. Yes, but it reportedly does recognize Allison’s second-place finish in the same car at another track just two days later.
Yes, Ford, Mustangs have raced in NASCAR. Maybe you can make it say, “… raced in NASCAR’s Nationwide Series.” That might hold water.